Re: Observ. Fri Eve: Bright unid flasher

Bjoern Gimle (b_gimle@algonet.se)
Tue, 10 Jun 1997 07:22:04 +0200 

>
>Observations 6 June 1997    (Fri Eve., 7 June UT)
 Observations 6 June 1997 Fri Eve.   (Sat morning, 7 June UT)
>
>06:03    UT  Approx time of near-zenith culmination of northbound 
>             Mag 4 satellite, possibly Cosmos 1766 r (#16882).
>
>06:08:40 UT  Approx time of near-zenith culmination of unindentified
>             flashing satellite. Passed overhead in interior of
>             Bootes down along the "handle" of the Big Dipper.
>             Bright flash at Mag 2 to minimum of approx 5, with
>             period of 8.8 seconds. 6 flash periods timed in 53 sec.,
>             starting at 06:08:49. No likely candidate in
>             molczan.tle. Best match in alldat.tle was #12086,
>             80095E. What kind of object is this?
>
As I read my predictions (SkyMap) #12086 was passing from alpha to beta
Bootis in about two hours (!) and was far from the handle, moving
almost perpendicular to it.

#12086 is an 8 m2 RCS SL-6 rocket, in 12 hr Molniya orbit.

I had hoped your obs would match one of the new launches, but the closest
I find are the 97-28 objects, moving parallell to #12086 about 04:39 and
05:29, and at 05:53 across the Bowl.

However, I see that 97-28 C maneuvred between the two elsets bridging
your observation time :
Proton C
1 24829U 97028C   97158.15410951  .00022679  34646-5  10000-3 0    20
2 24829  64.5388 182.7647 1483922 257.7356  85.4128 12.78625378    63
Proton C raised
1 24829U 97028C   97158.34559028 -.00000045  00000-0  00000+0 0    32
2 24829  63.4143 193.1569 0727479 335.8974 166.5532 11.07184566    82

and other elsets may also have changed around that time.
The 06:09 pass of the rocket would below the NW horizon.

The uncatalogued Blok DM-2M adapter should have decayed, or be in an
orbit like the rocket and thus invisible at the time, according to
Jonathan's Space Report 324.



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